3

concerning this, and more clearly revealing its glory, he cries aloud: Thus says the Lord Almighty: The fast of the fourth, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh shall be to the house of Judah for joy and for gladness and for good feasts. Have you all seen how fasting opens the cause of the feasts? Have you learned how it more clearly proclaims its excellent deeds and glories? Do you know how it exalts those who receive it toward spiritual desire? Do you wish to learn its cause more distinctly? Open the ears of your mind, and receive in your thoughts the spiritual songs, ever-flowing streams gushing from the spring of immortality. What do you say, O Prophet? Which Israel do you introduce? the carnal one, or the one whose mind sees God? the one made abominable by the unrestrained sacrifices, or the one brought in through the teaching of the Apostles? the one sacrificing with the blood of rams and bulls, or the one offering a bloodless sacrifice, the one who takes away the sin of the world? the one who sacrificed to carved images instead of God, or the one snatched away from the altars and the wooden idols, and regenerated into spiritual adoption? Clearly the new, the chosen people through baptism, the one being purified in water and fire. For indeed through Isaiah the prophet he openly cries: Your new moons and sabbaths and great day I cannot bear; my soul hates fasting and idleness and your feasts. Pay attention, that through the Prophet he calls the newly-appeared people to achieve the gift of fasting; for it is not God who rejects their fasting and prayer and new moons and sabbaths, but that he is full of them. But through their profane deeds they themselves left God, and they unjustly killed the chosen people who foretold the coming of His only-begotten Son, one with a wooden saw, another they cast down into a pit of mire. And why do I speak of prophets? For they themselves crucified and killed their own Master as one condemned, saying: This is the heir; come, let us kill him. Do you see the alienation by which they alienated themselves through their wicked deeds? The Lord, then, did not reject them, but they made themselves strangers to their ancestral boldness. These things the sons of Israel devised; thus the chosen people of the Lord raged, according to the forefather of God, David, saying: Why did the nations rage, and the peoples devise vain things? and so on. Do you see, O faithful, the grace of fasting? do you see the prizes it provides to those who possess it with an unchanging mind? do you perceive how harsh and rough it shows itself to be for those who despise its law? It is a brandished sword, standing in the vestibules of the kingdom of God, and terrifying those who do not receive it with gentleness and meekness; but again it kindly turns its back to all who receive it with a pure conscience, and leading them by the hand to unceasing life, and effortless joy, and painless delight, and bestowing a reward of countless goods. And if you wish, let us collect a few things from the many and say, who, having acquired fasting, ever had leisure from worldly cares, who, having embraced it, did not rightly travel the ways of the Lord, who, having kept it, did not meekly pass through the earthly voyage, who, having held it, wronged an orphan or a widow, who, having been its disciple, did not calmly pass under the pleasures of the air, who, having embraced it, was not deemed worthy of visions and contemplations of the Lord, who, having been sweetened by it, ceased from meditating day and night on the law of the Lord. Do you see its boldness? do you also see the honor with which it is clothed? how from the beginning of the world it rules the pious? how its measures have been kept from the foundation of the world? how it glorifies those who honor it, and those not keeping

3

περὶ ταύτης, καὶ τρανότερον τὴν δόξαν αὐτῆς ἀνακαλύπτων διαπρυσίως βοᾷ· Τάδε λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ· Νηστεία ἡ τετάρτη, καὶ νηστεία ἡ πέμπτη, καὶ νηστεία ἡ ἑβδόμη ἔσονται τῷ οἴκῳ Ἰούδα εἰς χαρὰν καὶ εἰς εὐφροσύνην καὶ εἰς ἑορτὰς ἀγαθάς. Εἴδετε πάντες πῶς ἀνοίγει τῶν ἑορτῶν τὴν ὑπόθεσιν ἡ νηστεία; Ἐμάθετε πῶς τρανότερον αὐτῆς καταγγέλλει τὰς ἀριστείας καὶ τὰ κλέη; Γνωρίζετε πῶς ὑψοῖ αὕτη πρὸς τὸν πόθον τὸν πνευματικὸν τοὺς εἰσδεχομένους αὐτήν. Βούλεσθε σαφεστέρως αὐτῆς τὴν ὑπόθεσιν μαθεῖν; Ἀνοίξατε τὰ ὦτα ὑμῶν τῆς διανοίας, καὶ δέξασθε τοῖς λογισμοῖς ὑμῶν τὰ πνευματικὰ ᾄσματα, βρύοντα ἐκ τῆς πηγῆς τῆς ἀθανασίας ἀείῤῥυτα νάματα. Τί λέγεις, Προφῆτα; Ποῖον Ἰσραὴλ παρεισάγεις; τὸν σαρκικὸν, ἢ τὸν νοῦν ὁρῶντα Θεόν; τὸν ἐβδελυγμένον διὰ τὰς ἀκαθέκτους 56.528 θυσίας, ἢ τὸν ἐπεισαχθέντα διὰ τῆς τῶν Ἀποστόλων διδασκαλίας; τὸν αἵμασι κριῶν καὶ ταύρων θυσιάζοντα, ἢ τὸν ἀναιμάκτως θύοντα, τὸν αἴροντα τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου; τὸν θύσαντα ἀντὶ Θεοῦ τοῖς γλυπτοῖς, ἢ τὸν ἀπὸ τῶν βωμῶν καὶ τῶν ξοάνων ἐξαρπαγέντα, καὶ εἰς υἱοθεσίαν πνευματικὴν ἀνακραθέντα; ∆ῆλον ὅτι τὸν νέον, τὸν περιούσιον διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος λαὸν, τὸν ἐν ὕδατι καὶ πυρὶ ἀνακαθαιρόμενον. Καὶ γὰρ διὰ Ἡσαΐου τοῦ προφήτου ἀναφανδὸν βοᾷ· Τὰς νεομηνίας ὑμῶν καὶ τὰ σάββατα καὶ ἡμέραν μεγάλην οὐκ ἀνέχομαι, νηστείαν καὶ ἀργίαν καὶ τὰς ἑορτὰς ὑμῶν μισεῖ ἡ ψυχή μου. Προσέχετε, ὅτι τὸν ἀρτιφανῆ λαὸν προσκαλεῖται διὰ τοῦ Προφήτου τῆς νηστείας τὸ δῶρον κατορθώσασθαι· οὐ γὰρ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀποβαλλομένου αὐτῶν τὴν νηστείαν καὶ τὴν δέησιν καὶ τὰς νεομηνίας καὶ τὰ σάββατα, ἀλλ' ὅτι πλήρης αὐτῶν. ∆ιὰ δὲ τῶν πράξεων αὐτοὶ τῶν βεβήλων κατέλιπον τὸν Θεὸν, καὶ τὸν ἐκλεκτὸν λαὸν τὸν τὴν παρουσίαν τοῦ μονογενοῦς Υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ προκαταγγείλαντα αὐτοὶ ἀδίκως ἀνεῖλον, ὃν μὲν ἐν ξυλίνῳ πρίονι, ὃν δὲ ἐν λάκκῳ βορβόρου κατήγαγον. Καὶ τί προφήτας λέγω; Αὐτοὶ γὰρ τὸν ἑαυτῶν ∆εσπότην ὡς κατάδικον ἐσταύρωσαν καὶ ἀνεῖλον λέγοντες· Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ κληρονόμος· δεῦτε, ἀποκτείνωμεν αὐτόν. Βλέπεις τὴν ἀλλοτρίωσιν, ἢν ἠλλοτρίωσαν ἑαυτοὺς διὰ τῶν ἔργων τῶν ἀτόπων; Ὁ Κύριος οὖν αὐτοὺς οὐκ ἀπώσατο, ἀλλ' αὐτοὶ ἑαυτοὺς ξένους τῆς προγονικῆς παῤῥησίας ἀπειργάσαντο. Ταῦτα οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραὴλ ἐμελέτησαν· οὕτως ὁ ἐκλεκτὸς λαὸς τοῦ Κυρίου ἐφρυάξατο, κατὰ τὸν θεοπάτορα ∆αυῒδ λέγοντα· Ἵνα τί ἐφρύαξαν ἔθνη, καὶ λαοὶ ἐμελέτησαν κενά; καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. Ὁρᾶτε, πιστοὶ, τῆς νηστείας τὴν χάριν; βλέπετε αὐτῆς τὰ βραβεῖα ἃ προξενεῖ τοῖς ἀτρέπτῳ γνώμῃ αὐτὴν κεκτημένοις; κατανοεῖτε τοὺς περιφρονοῦντας αὐτῆς τὴν νομοθεσίαν, οἷα σκληρὰ καὶ τραχεῖα δείκνυται; Ῥομφαία ἐστὶ λυομένη, ἐν προθύροις τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ βασιλείας ἱσταμένη, καὶ ἐκθαμβοῦσα τοὺς μὴ μετὰ ἐπιεικείας καὶ πραότητος αὐτὴν εἰσδεχομένους· πάλιν δὲ νῶτα δίδωσι προσηνῶς πᾶσι τοῖς μετὰ καθαροῦ συνειδότος αὐτὴν προσλαμβάνουσι, καὶ πρὸς ἄληκτον βίον, καὶ χαρὰν ἄμοχθον, καὶ τρυφὴν ἀνώδυνον χειραγωγοῦσα, καὶ μυρίων ἀγαθῶν ἀντίδοσιν χορηγοῦσα. Καὶ εἰ θέλεις, ἐκ τῶν πολλῶν ὀλίγα συλλέξαντες εἴπωμεν, τίς νηστείαν κτησάμενος, μεριμνῶν βιωτικῶν ἐσχόλασέ ποτε, τίς αὐτὴν ἀγκαλισάμενος οὐκ ὀρθῶς τὰς ὁδοὺς Κυρίου διώδευσε, τίς ταύτην φυλάξας, οὐ πράως τὸν πλοῦν τὸν γήϊνον ἐπέρασε, τίς αὐτὴν ἐσχηκὼς, ὀρφανὸν ἢ χήραν ἠδίκησε, τίς αὐτὴν μαθητεύσας, τὰς ἡδονὰς τοῦ ἀέρος οὐχ ὑπῆλθε γαληνῶς, τίς ταύτην ἀσπασάμενος οὐκ ὀπτασιῶν καὶ θεωριῶν Κυρίου κατηξιώθη, τίς αὐτῇ γλυκανθεὶς διέλιπε μελετῶν ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτὸς ἐν τῷ νόμῳ Κυρίου. Ὁρᾶτε αὐτῆς τὴν παῤῥησίαν; ὁρᾶτε καὶ τὴν τιμὴν ἣν περιβέβληται; πῶς ἐξ ἀρχῆς κόσμου δεσπόζει τῶν εὐσεβῶν; πῶς τὰ μέτρα αὐτῆς ἀπὸ καταβολῆς τοῦ κόσμου τετήρηνται; πῶς δοξάζει τοὺς τιμῶντας αὐτὴν, καὶ τοὺς μὴ φυλάττοντας